


Black Hole Sun

by wastefulreverie



Series: PhannieMay Shots 2019 [7]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Gen, Headcanon, Science Fiction, Supernatural - Freeform, space, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 13:39:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18966355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wastefulreverie/pseuds/wastefulreverie
Summary: When his parents punched a hole into another dimension, it was much more complicated that a 'zone of ghosts' in another world. Except, until now he hadn't realized how complicated.





	Black Hole Sun

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Days 7 and 9 of PhannieMay 2019, Solar and Worldbuilding. Title from Soundgarden's song, "Black Hole Sun".

_The sun in my disgrace_

_Boiling heat, summer stench_

_'Neath the black the sky looks dead_

"Reality's a funny thing, Danno," Jack said, facing to turn to his array of chalkboards in the lab. Grainy equations and conceptual drawings overlapped on the surface of the board. "There's more than one reality, for one."

Danny rolled his eyes idly, "Yeah, sure Dad. I've only heard this a bajillion times."

"Well, I'd better tell it again," his father grabbed another stick of chalk, drawing over a sequence of numbers. "We're close this time, so _close_! You see, most people think of reality as just everything in our world, including space. But there are infinite versions of space, different realities all stacked up against each other."

"You mean like… parallel dimensions?"

"Some… aren't so parallel. But that's the right idea! These realities are compact, some pressing against each other enough to create miniscule, very granule points of convergence! Holes, doorways between realities! And that's what this portal is for, we're going to crack the code and force a doorway open into the ghost reality, well the Ghost _Zone_."

Danny liked to entertain the ideas of sci-fi, but unlike his father, he was able to differentiate the line between science and fiction. Multiple realities? That wasn't so far-fetched, sure. But a _ghost_ reality? It was just all a super developed delusion and a waste of his mom's PhD. Of course, he couldn't say this to his dad, so he decided to play along.

"But isn't that like super dangerous? What if you tear fabric of reality or something just trying to make a hole?"

"That's why it's taken so many years to build this portal. The actual building part is easy, the hard part was perfecting how not to tear reality! But after all these years, your Mom and I are almost absolutely sure that the portal will make a clean puncture between our worlds. Then we'll be able to study ghosts!"

Danny sighed. _More about ghosts… yay._

"You know what?" Danny challenged, "How did the ghosts even get into that other reality anyway if they're from _our_ dimension?"

Jack's eyes lit up. "The afterlife of course. Whichever afterlife there is! Mads thinks it's heaven, but I'm more agnostic, there's so many possibilities - I can't just pursue one! They all sort of make sense."

Danny only had a vague Christian upbringing, but never went to church except for Easter. Before his dad mentioned it, he sort of just thought his parents were atheists or something. Danny kind of had the same view as his dad; he didn't know what to believe.

"The afterlife is different than our reality and the ghost reality, but it's also it's own reality. When someone dies here, their spirit, essence, soul - whatever you call it - gets pulled into the afterlife reality! But sometimes, if that soul has a really traumatic death, the emotional dissonance within one's soul can disturb their soul enough to get sucked into the ghost reality."

"That's a little confusing," Danny huffed.

"Not really! At this point, we just need to add a few more things on the inside of the portal and it'll be all done! Then you'll get to see what the other side is like, Danno… the other side…."

* * *

Days later, when he pressed the button to the portal, this conversation was far from his mind, Danny did see the other side. He was stretched between two realities, and one reality made its permanent home in him.

* * *

Exploring the Ghost Zone was always a surreal activity, but this time felt different. He'd been Phantom for a few years now, facing no qualms about wandering around in this strange reality. The inhabitants of the Ghost Zone knew him too now, the infamous halfa, and most kept their fair distance. So it was a little difficult to notice whenever he found a part of the Ghost Zone that was actually unoccupied by any other ghosts. Sure, the entire Zone was usually a barren scape of ectoplasm and darkness, but there was never anywhere that was devoid of the occasional lair or so.

Even though this was probably a good signal that he should turn around, Danny continued onwards, delving deeper into the darkness of the zone. Even the usual ambient ectoplasm swirls were absent here; Danny's interest was piqued to say the least. What could he say? He'd done all of his homework this weekend, he didn't have much else to do….

This part of the Ghost Zone was probably the darkest place he'd ever seen. The only thing he had for guidance was his own ghostly glow, but there was nothing for his light to even reflect off of. If he hadn't learned how to teleport recently, he might've been panicked, but Danny wasn't worried. He had an escape route if he _did_ get lost in this abyss.

Actually, this place almost reminded him of outer space. This was sort of cool in a weird way.

Just for kicks, Danny let out his ghostly wail just because he knew that it wouldn't hit anything. The green soundwaves rippled and dissipated without touching anything. That'd never happened before so that was also sort of interesting.

Somewhere about three-hundred miles into the darkness (his top speed was 200mph), the blackness started to fade into crimson. At first thought he thought his eyes were just seeing things since Sam told him recently that if you put a person in darkness for a long time, they'll start to hallucinate because their brain hates to be deprived of sensation. But the redness became more and more prominent, and suddenly it was like he was floating in a blood red sphere.

 _This really was weird_.

Red wasn't something you typically saw in the Ghost Zone. Green and purple were the primary colors in Ghost Zone, with occasional blues and orange. But never _red_. Whatever was residing here in this part of the Zone was probably really powerful… and Danny didn't know if he should take that as a warning sign to just jet out of there. But he kept going, after all, he'd come all this way - he might as well see what's over here.

There was a pinprick in the distance. Immense waves of heat radiated from the source of light, and Danny recoiled; heat was also something scarce in this reality. He felt something familiar nagging at him, like he should know what this was. And as he stared into the abysmal space, he realized that the distant object, a bright mass of red energy… reminded him of a _star_. But how could a star of all things be in the Ghost Zone?

He remembered long ago in the lab, when his dad had lectured him about puncturing other realities, that Dad had mentioned something about 'infinite versions of space'. Was it possible that he'd drifted out of the Ghost Zone and into this reality's outer space? Or was this star a part of the Ghost Zone, a stellar object slap dab in the middle of the zone?

"It's not a star," a voice informed him. Danny flinched, lighting his fists defensively with ectoplasmic energy. A child, no, _Clockwork_ greeted him. Danny was almost tempted to fire a shot at the time ghost for startling him.

"Then what is it?" Danny asked. Clockwork spontaneously appeared at random intervals, so Danny didn't even question his appearance at this point.

"It's the remnants of a star. Mere embers of the red giant it used to be before collapsing. Not even embers at all, just a _speck_." The time ghost mused about the star with a sheen of sadness in his glassy eyes.

Danny shook his head. As a certified astronomy nerd, he knew enough about the collapsing of stars to find the logical errors in Clockwork's statement. "That's not how stars work. The don't leave behind remnants like _that_."

"And how would you know that they don't?" Clockwork asked calmly, shifting into his adult form.

"Because when stars collapse, they either leave behind a white dwarf or a nebula star; that's something else."

"Yes, those are two things that can happen when stars die… but there's another outcome too." Clockwork patiently gestured for Danny to guess what he was talking about.

"You mean a black hole? That's uh - not a black hole."

"Possibly."

"No, I mean if that were a black hole, we'd be sucked inside right now, time practically nonexistent at the event horizon, and we'd be spaghettified upon being pulled inside." Danny shrugged, "And that's just basic middle school physics."

"Sure, that's true for what happens when you enter a black hole," Clockwork grinned. "But what if you're already in one?"

"Dude," Danny sighed, "you're going to have to start making more sense. What are you talking about us being inside a _black hole_?"

At this point in their friendship Danny had realized Clockwork had a weird sense of humor, but Danny legitimately couldn't tell if Clockwork was pulling a prank on him or not.

"This space here," Clockwork gestured around them, "is the same space that surrounds Earth in your reality. In _this_ reality, there is a black hole in this exact spot _instead_ of Earth. Are you with me?" Clockwork accessed.

"Nope," Danny answers. "I get that in another reality, a black hole could exist where Earth is. I just don't understand how we are _in_ a black hole, when supposedly nothing (I doubt even ghosts) can survive the tidal forces of twisting spacetime fabric."

Clockwork shifted into his old man form. "Within a black hole, there is supposedly something called a singularity, which is what all the matter in a black hole gets crushed into; a point of infinite density at the center of the black hole where the laws of physics don't apply. Those forces are only lethal _outside_ the singularity. There is infinite yet finite space within the singularity, a closed off _zone_ of unnatural physics and occurrences…" he paused for dramatic effect. "The Ghost Zone: a zone constructed by a collapsing star. "

Danny had to think hard about what Clockwork was proposing to him. "So the entire Ghost Zone is like a bubbled area within a black hole?" Oh man, that was so _weird_. A little terrifying. And a bit awesome? He _was_ an astronomy geek, after all.

"In simple terms, yes," Clockwork confirmed.

"And that's... That's all that's left of the star's core within this black hole?" Danny turned back to the star, humming with solar energy from afar. _A star on its deathbed._

"Almost beautiful in a morbid way, isn't it?" Clockwork asked.

"I… suppose so," Danny admitted, admiring the stellar object's ethereal red glow. He turned back to Clockwork, "All this time… I just thought the Ghost Zone was an entire reality full of ghosts and nothing else. I hadn't realized that it really _was_ just a small zone within a larger reality, that outside of this black hole could exist so many different worlds. Possibly even _aliens_."

Clockwork snorted, "I wouldn't know about that. I'm the ghost of time, but I can't see beyond of here and Earth. Maybe, though."

They watched the fallen star for a few more moments before teleporting back to Clockwork's tower, discussing more intricate physics regarding the Ghost Zone. Danny was all too eager to learn about how the Ghost Zone existed in regard to the rest of space. Who knew that the Ghost Zone was _much_ more impossible than just a reality of ghosts on the other side of his parents' portal?

_Black hole sun, won't you come_

_And wash away the rain?_

_Black hole sun, won't you come?_

_Won't you come?_

**Author's Note:**

> ! I wrote this days before the black hole picture was released online, not even knowing it was scheduled to be released. Rereading this I'm actually tripped out mainly because of my appreciation for that picture <3.


End file.
